‘I’m not your judge’ – Priest urged bomber McVeigh to submit to God

Catholic News Service ^ | August 16, 2006 | Priscilla Greear

[Vision]

"When I first came in (to see him) I thought 'God is the owner of my life,' and I went to him and he threw his feces on me and called me all types of names and said, 'You can't be a priest because I've never seen a you-know-what as a priest,'"

Well that's nice.

[ducdriver]

You need to re-read the article, beginning with the headline. We should always hope for everyon's salvation, and never desire that a soul be lost.

[siunevada]

Or this passage in the middle:

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,

As a side note, this is interesting:

The inspiration for Long John Silver from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Henley was a 19th-century British editor and poet known for his red beard, unkempt hair and unkempt manner.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"I do not believe any one man from any faith can forgive him for what he did...

What Timothy McVeigh did was the most extreme offense against God, and it is true that no mere man can forgive what has offended God Himself.

But Jesus is the man who is God, the God who is man; and where there is repentance and a broken, contrite heart, He can forgive.

You (and I) have no idea how much greater God is than anything we can conceive. I truly hope that McVeigh truly repented, even if it means he has to be in Purgatory until the end of the world. I will pray for him.

[Rutles4Ever]

My sins alone were enough to put Christ on the cross...

[PhiKapMom]

I live here in Oklahoma and saw the result of his heinous act. I am a Christian and if it makes me less of one then so be it, but I will NEVER pray for that man's soul. He has NO soul IMHO with the way he taunted families of the victims until the very end. Families did not deserve his comments and he never said he was sorry for the deaths of those children including babies. I have nothing for the man and less than that.

[ducdriver]

You make yourself his judge. I'm glad you won't be judging me upon my death. Surely you will want mercy when your time comes.

[Dumb_Ox]

I think this story gives strong support for the death penalty. Would he have repented if he was going to be in prison for life, or was his repenting the result of facing death and being forced to contemplate the Four Last Things?

It gives even stronger support for rigorous faith formation in the young. McVeigh was baptized Catholic. Where did we Catholics go wrong, that one of our own should stray so far?

[mckenzie7]

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, AS WE FORGIVE those who trespass against us!

I have been taught that praying for those whom we feel wronged by, is very healing for US

[dangus]

I think the priest put it very well. He told McVeigh that forgiveness comes only through true repentence with God, and that he was not McVeigh's judge, the implication being that God alone was.

Don't forget also that the Catholic Church maintains the belief in purgatory. McVeigh can ultimately have been saved, although his quote from Invictus seems like he was not; nonetheless, he will suffer for his crimes. God forgives the eternal soul; just as his forgiveness does not resurrect in this world the dead, nor does it spare McVeigh purgatory.

[ventana]

Your hardness is understandable. What happened was horrific. The challenge to all of us is the mystery of the Cross: repentence, and forgiveness; this is difficult. V's wife.

[murphE]

Where did we Catholics go wrong, that one of our own should stray so far?

Lucifer was the highest and most intelligent angel once, look how he turned out.

When Catholics go bad, they seem to go really bad.

Corruptio optimi pessima est.

[Alex Murphy]

Lucifer was the highest and most intelligent angel once, look how he turned out. When Catholics go bad, they seem to go really bad.

Lucifer was Catholic?

[onedoug]

McVeigh and Terry Nichols went to the Philipenes, apparently more than once and moved in terrorist circles,
evidently meeting at least once with Ramsi Yousef who plotted multiple simultaneous
airliner bombings over the Pacific (now in a US prison).

And a terror bomber by any other name would be an islamist in doing their murder.

[murphE]

That wasn't really what I was implying by that analogy, no. Is that what you thought my point was?

[Alex Murphy]

That wasn't really what I was implying by that analogy, no. Is that what you thought my point was?

"It's a joke, son!"

[Sun]

Did you ever consider that the AP story could be wrong?

The AP does have a liberal bias often times.

[_Jim]

McVeigh and Terry Nichols went to the Philipenes

Gonna need a cite that McVeigh went to the Phillipines ... we know Nichols did.

[siunevada]

Did you ever consider that the AP story could be wrong?

I looked at it several times after I posted it and it's a long way from being a minute-by-minute account of everything that happened. I guess now I think it doesn't mention him but it also doesn't cover everything that happened, either.